Low budget Paris in Three days

Paris has so much to offer to tourists . We we low on budget and time so had to do a lot of homework and planning .We already had a base to work on and were in fact building on the chronicled experiences of Indian people who had worked at CERN. Swamy is a notable name who had come up with a document, to which a lot of people had added relevent informations as it passed down to us. Arindam's expenditure sheet was also a lot of help. First we booked the train tickets at the SNCF office at St Genis Pouilly, and were lucky to get the lowest fare tickets each costing 22 Euro/ ticket. The hotel had alredy been identified as the Etaph hotel at Porte d'Orleans, that's what i mean by 'hotel' in my subsequent paragraphs. The rates are very competitive and rooms okay ( 55 Euro / Twin bedded room, there was a bunk bed for children). Follwing are the few necessary steps in that sequence for a trip to Paris when you have to cover most within 2-3 days stay.

1. First start by getting your Train / flight tickets to Paris you can get very cheap tickets from SNCF counters if you plan to travel during midweek around wednesdays, and come back on Sunday. Give sufficient time between tickets purchase and your travel date. Tickets are olso available on the SBB site at a cheaper rate ( hyperlink to SBB : http://www.sbb.ch/en/).
2. Once the ticket purchase is in place book the hotel. We boooked at Etaph hotel at Porte de orleans as most of pur indian friends stayed there. Spartan hotel but clean and very cheap. You can get access to a microwave oven to heat up your food ( ask at the reception of the hotel)

http://www.etaphotel.com/:

• At the Gare du lyon Buy the Museum Pass, it is value for money at the Tourist information Counter.

The Following Itinerary tries to cover the following must see sights:

• Louvre
• Chateau De Versailles
• Eiffel Tower
• Hotel Des Invalides.
• Arc De Triomphe
• Cathedral Notre Dam
• The Seine River Cruise
• Concorde

The other sights can be planned as per the time available and the interest of the person visiting Paris.

Itinerary for Day 1
From	To	Metro/RER	Direction	Remarks
Gare de Lyon	La Chatellet	M1	La Defence	4th Stop
La Chatellet	Porte d'Orleans	M4	Porte d'Orleans	Hotel
Porte d’Orleans	La Chatellet	M4	Porte de Clignancourt	To catch M1/M7
La Chatellet	Palais Royal	M1 / M7	Louvre	it was wednesday
Musee d'orsay	Tour Eiffel	RER C	Eiffel Tower/ river Cruise	Take the Night Cruise
Tour Eiffel	Bir Hakiem	-	Walk down	To catch M6
Bir Hakiem	Denfret Rochereau	M2	Nations	catch M4 to Porte d'Orleans

Itinerary for Day 2
From	To	Metro/RER	Direction	Remarks
Porte d’Orleans	St Michel	M4	Porte de Clignancourt	Visit Notre dame
Notre dame	Pantheon	walk	300 metre	Visit Le Pantheon
St Michel	Invalides	RER C	Versailles Rive St Quientin	Visit hotel des invalides
Invalides	Concorde	walk	cross the river	Visit Concorde
Concorde	Charles de Gaulle Etoile	M1	La Defence	Arc De Triomphe
Charles de Gaulle Etoile	Chatelet/ Porte d’Orleans	M1 /M4	Chateau de Vincennes /Porte d’Orleans	To hotel

If you have to catch a train the same day you can drop the luggage at Gare De lyon station luggage locker but it is a bit expensive for a day ( the rates are for 72 hrs).

Itinerary of Day 3
From	To	Metro/Rer no	Direction	Remarks
Porte d’Orleans	Gare Montparnasse/ Invalides	M4/M13	Chatelet/ St Denis- Univ	To catch RER for Versailles
Invalides	Versailles River gauche	RER c5	Versailles River gauche	Reach Versailles
Versailles River gauche	Invalides/Gare Montparnasse	RER c5/ M13	Nations	-
Gare Montparnasse	Porte d’Orleans	M4	Porte d’Orleans	Reach hotel

Entry Fees: Quick Reference tables
Place	Timings	Entry fee in Euro	Remarks
Opera Garnier	10:00 to 17:00	Free	View Structure
Hotel Des Invalides	10.00 to 17:45	8 -18yrs	Musee de Armee and Napoleons tomb
Eiffel Tower	9.30 to 22:00	7.8/ 11.5	View from the top
Musée du Louvre	09:00 to 18:00hrs till 21:45 hrs on Wed/ fri	8.5/6 18yrs	Of of the must see sights of Paris
Notre Dame de Paris	09:30 to 18:00hrs	5.5 / 4.5	See cathedral
Le Panthéon	10:00 to 17:30	7.5/ 4.8	Visit
Arc de Triomphe	9:30 to 2300	8 /5 €	nice View from the top
Château de Versailles	09:00 to 18:00	20 / 25 €	Visit the kings palace.